Reduce your Waste

Whakaitia ō para

Council is committed to recycling and reusing as much of our waste as possible, reducing the amount we send to landfill.

By reducing your rubbish, you can:

Reduce demands on natural resources.
Reduce the amount of material sent to landfills.
Reduce disposal costs for ratepayers.
Save money on weekly grocery bills (products with less packaging cost less).
Use products you’ve recycled yourself, such as compost and paper, instead of buying them.

Take a look at the Wasted video series below to learn more about our key waste streams here in NZ including recycling, wastewater and landfill.

Reduce your Rubbish

The following steps can help reduce what ends up in your rubbish bag each week:

Buy products that use less packaging (economy size, refills or concentrates).
Buy products packaged in recyclable material, such as paper, cardboard, glass, aluminium, tin or plastic containers – not plastic film.
Avoid or reduce the use of disposables (razors, pens, plates and cups).
If you’re only buying one or two items, ask for no bag and bring your own cloth bags to the supermarket for groceries.
Buy products with recycled content in them — this means fewer natural resources are used, and there is less waste produced in the long run.
Re-use boxes and jars for storage and keep wrapping paper and ribbons for future use.
Think before you throw something away — donate re-usable toys, books and clothing to charities or your local ‘Op Shop’.
Take old appliances, furniture and bikes to a second-hand shop rather than the transfer station.
If you have a garden, you can compost your grass clippings and tree prunings as well as fruit and vegetable scraps.

Reduce your Food Waste

The average household throws out 79 kilos of food a year, in Masterton that adds up to 751 tonnes, the same as one and a half A380 jumbo jets. That is a cost of $872 million for the whole country and Masterton contributes about $5.3 million towards this.

We are proud to be part of the national Love Food Hate Waste NZ campaign which aims to turn this around by helping people waste less food. For practical tips on how to reduce your own food waste and save money visit the Love Food Hate Waste NZ website.

Waste Management at Events

Council wants to support event organisers, stall holders, and food and drink vendors in our region to reduce the amount of waste created at events. In late 2020 we adopted a new bylaw to help manage and minimise solid waste which would normally go to landfill. See the planning requirements and more information on our waste management at events page.

Wasted Video Series

Wasted New Zealand is an educational video series that takes you on a journey through our key waste streams here in NZ including recycling, wastewater, food waste and landfill.